My Turn...

To see the Red-bellied Woodpecker, that is.  I glanced out at just the right moment, had the camera at hand, and managed to get it turned on and zoomed a bit before he chose a seed and flew off.  Like I said, he only stays for a minute so he's hard to catch and harder to photograph.  But today I managed.  Hooray!  Sorry it's a little blurry but at least you can see the male's red head.  They've got a red patch on their bellies, hence the name.

I got the second set of doll shirt & diaper sewed up yesterday.  I keep thinking I should make him some pants but then I think about how hard it would be for LC (and me, to be honest) to get them on over his permanently bent legs and I think he looks just fine in his shirt & diaper.  I hope LC never ever gets into Barbies because, as God is my witness, I will not be sewing any Barbie clothes.  Mom didn't and I won't either because she was a much better seamstress than I ever could hope to be (tailored wool suits, anyone?).  Unless Barbie consents to wear shapeless muumuus, that is.  If LC gets into American Girl dolls eventually, I've got Mom's doll that she used as a dress form and some of the outfits that she made to pass along to the great-granddaughter she never got to meet.  (Which totally breaks my heart every time I think about it, so quit talking about it, okay?)

Today we had a day moon.  I like seeing the three-quarter moon in the morning sky when I open the shade and make the bed.  (Do you make your bed every day? I do, it makes me think I'm a good housekeeper, even if the rest of the place looks like a warehouse after a tornado, go figure.  A made bed and cleared off kitchen counters and I'm Suzy Homemaker.  Delusional, that's me.)

Do you remember a few months ago when I hacked back the mums that were budding and blooming too early?  I'll bet you thought I was making a big mistake.  Not so fast.  Look at them now.  All leafy and blossomy, not holding a grudge because I made them wait until October to blossom.  Good mums.  I need to plant other colors.  I used to have bronze and cranberry red ones; they died and only the lilac ones, my least favorite color held on.  I should go get some, maybe later.  Wonder who has them on sale?  Probably everyone.  Maybe I'll cruise by ShopKo after I post this... they're just up the street a few blocks...

Last night after supper I got out the sewn-together panels of the Sudoku Afghan and counted the garter ridges of the first long joining strip--249 ridges.  Then, putting a marker every 20, I counted the ridges of Strip #2--230 ridges.  Which means I need to knit 19 more ridges or 38 more rows which, since each row is only 15 stitches, I might be able to finish later tonight.  Woohoo!  Then I'll crochet Panel #2 to the left side of Strip #2 and Panel #3 to the right side of Strip #2, weave in all the tails, and figure out how I want to edge the thing.  More good news, I have three full, 207 yard skeins of the charcoal black remaining.  I might have to tap into one of them for a few yards to finish Strip #2 but that'll leave plenty of yarn to make pretty much any edge I want.  Which I will definitely finish long before July 20, 2018 which is the 10th birthday of this project.  I. Want. It. Done.

October 8--Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Landscape with Peasants.  It wasn't a very big village.  There were only a few houses on streets that ringed the square where what looked like a combination gas station, feed merchant, cafe, and post office occupied the four sides of the same building.  Dan stopped by the gas pump.  "Why don't you check the cafe menu while I fill up?"  Marti got out and stretched in the weak October sunshine.  "Okay."  She reached through the open window of the van and went around the gas station, past the open service bays, to the little cafe creatively named "Eats."  There were ruffly cafe curtains on the window which made her smile.  She envisioned a woman living in this tiny village a mile off the interstate marooned in the center of the featureless plains of North Dakota trying her best to bring a little cheer to what had to be a pretty barren existence, sewing up cheerful and frilly curtains to keep from going mad.  The menu on a board on one wall listed meatloaf and beef and gravy, just the kind of food Dan loved.  Nearly every seat in the small restaurant was filled.  She spread her jacket over the last two empty stools at the counter and went to tell Dan to come over when he was through pumping gas.

Despite rumors to the contrary it's sunny today.  Sunny and warmish, so I was able to do yoga on the patio this morning.  I sweep away any leaves before putting down my mat and thought this morning's collection looked pretty good.  I'm determined to keep doing patio yoga until the cold and/or precipitation prevents it.
--Barbara